I slept okay last night, though more out of quantity than quality. I kept waking up every hour or so throughout the night for some reason, but I think I slept at least eight hours altogether. I was up a little before seven this morning, wandering downstairs soon after in search of the conference and the books I needed the hotel to deliver to our tables. The conference is actually in a separate tower, and it was almost impossible not to get turned around looking for it. Even after the first time I found it. This is a really nice hotel, but it can kind of a maze. (And I’ve been to Atlantic City and Vegas, where the hotels are purposely designed to make it tough to find your way off the casino floor.)
But I did eventually find the conference, and get our pallet of books sent over, and I spent most of the morning setting up the exhibit, unpacking boxes and arranging books and catalogs in what I hoped was a sales-encouraging display. It was a little tough when conference attendees suddenly swarmed the tables, and I had to tell them we weren’t opening until noon and could they, you know, please get out of my way? It’s tough to sell books when the order forms are still inside a box and the “exhibit” is still just random piles of books. But luckily it’s not such a big exhibit, and I finished up by late morning and could go grab an early lunch.
At noon the sales began in earnest — though, given the nature of this conference, there are long stretches when it’s pretty quiet. My boss turned up around two o’clock — which is good, because I was starting to wonder if he’d even arrived in town yet — and we closed up shop around 5 PM.
I walked around San Jose for just a little bit, though never more than three or four blocks from the hotel, and then I wandered back to grab some dinner at the hotel’s fancy Chinese restaurant. What can I say? I’ve been jonesing for a little moo shu pork lately. After that, it was just back up to my hotel room. I’m going to try for a little more local exitement tomorrow night — it is, after all, my birthday — but tonight I mostly felt like coming back to the room and reading. Right now, I’m sort of half-(or may just a quarter)-watching Fringe, which I’ve been kind of meaning to give a second chance. I wasn’t crazy about the pilot, but I hear it actually got kind of interesting after that. But midway through the second season, after a tiring day of selling books to psychologists, and with the sound on mute, probably isn’t the best way to get caught up.
I think now I’m just going to get ready for bed. I forgot the power cord for my laptop anyway, so I have pretty limited battery power to see me through the next couple of days. That and, well, I’ve been on my feet all day and I’m kind of tired.
I guess I could change the timestamp for these dispatches from California. I actually posted this a little after 10 PM last night.
Happy, happy birthday!